Crystal River current. [volume] (Crystal, Colo.) 1886-18??, 1887-05-14
SOUTH AFRICAN D1AxoHD-r1EIDs
Tho Romantic story of Their Rise
and Development.


Tho Romantic Story of Their Rise
and Development.
The story of the rise and develop
mont OF the south African diamond.
fields is, in its way. scarcely less pic
turesque than the romantic history of
the discovery of gold in California and
Australia, or of that wild tale of the
rise of tho silver city on the tanks of a
bleak mountain in Nevada. In 1867
nobody suspected the existence of dia-
anonds in the country now known to be
so 'tdiamondiferous." to use the bar.
barous adjective coined by the colo
nists. OF gold they were aware. and
there were bright dreams of the wealth
which lay in copper and the gay plumes
plucked from ostrich tails. No doubt
they have since then heard that on an
old map. dated 1850. the chartographer
had written Here be diamonds"
There are also vague traditions of the
Kafiir having employed shining pebbles
to bore holes in other stones; but it is
certain that until a certain Schalk van
Niekerk saw the children of Farmer
Jacobs playing with bit of crock crys-
tall which instinct told him was too
bright and too heavy to be applied to
such frivolous purposes. nobody
thought much of the legend. Ho W.
ever when the Jacobs crystrl sold for
f5OO there was except Mr.. Gregory's
remarkable essay in The Geological
MngaSsne-no more scepticism ON the
subject. A rush ensued to the
banks Of the vaal river. and there for
nearly two years some very fair finds
were made by the adventurous who
elected to grub among dirt. in the
hope of coming upon such gems
rs the 2S8s carat stone which his
tory has associated with the name OF
MT. Stewart. Barkly was the capital Of
this district. But in 1871. under the
root OF an old thorn tree on the now
famous Kolesberg Kopje, or Mount
the then secretary of the colonois, was
found stone. which soon transferred
the diamond-diggers from the Vaal to
the New Rush. De Beers, Du Toits
Pan, and Bultfontein, which ever since
have continued the centers of this lu-
crative branch of commerce. The New
Rush is now tolably old one, or,
rather. rs the mines are all worked by
companies and capitalists, it is no LON
ger "Rush'' at all. 1t is the present
city of Kimberley, and out of the
pans and pipes" of the gabbo-rock
on which it was built something like
two and half millions of gems are
yearly exhumed. The Jacobs. the
Duvenhages, the Bendizenhouts, and
the Niekerks-names once familiar to
the early ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS now an
ssnhronisms. They would scarcely re-
cognize their early homes. The four
original mines have become extensive
townships. while Voornizigt. farm
which forty years ago, could have been
bought for shilling an acre, was sold
TO the colonial government for f1OO.-
400. though twas only small portion
of the original Bulfontoin. As for the
latter spot, rs it contains the township
of Beaconsfield and half the town of
Kimberley, it cannot complain; while
Dorstfontein comprises the mine and
town of Du Toits Pan and has, more
over. the satisfaction of being in close
proximity to the suburban district of
Beigravia, where most of the profess
sional men and the aristocracy of tho
buyers of diamonds and dealers in dry
goods have their smart villas.-London
Standard